Jay Farrar, Yim Yames’ Woody Guthrie Album New Multitudes Due In February

Here’s an album we can’t wait to listen to. Songwriters Jay Farrar, Anders Parker, Centro-Matic’s Will Johnson and Yim Yames (Jim James) of My Morning Jacket have banded together to record New Multitudes, a collection of songs derived from unpublished Woody Guthrie lyrics. The album, due February 28 from Rounder Records, is part of an ambitious Woody Guthrie centennial celebration (full details here). New Multitudes will be available in both a 12-song CD and a deluxe, 23-song edition, featuring bonus songs from Farrar and Parker.

“These guys worked on an amazing group of lyrics” says Nora Guthrie, who runs the Guthrie Archives and organized the Mermaid Avenue sessions and 2011’s Note Of Hope compilation. “Much of it was culled from Woody’s times in L.A. Lyric wise, it’s a part of the story that is still mostly unknown. From Woody’s experiences on LA’s skid row to his later years in Topanga Canyon, they are uniquely intimate, and relate two distinctly emotional periods in his life.”

Says Jay Farrar: “I heard Woody way before I ever knew who Bob Dylan was, and if you are going to go back and retrace the roots of your musical inspiration, what better way than to try and finish some of his songs.”

Adds Yames: “I think as time rolls on, younger people might not know about Woody so I do think it’s important for every generation to carry the musical torch of discovery and keep passing it down. It’s amazing to think of some kid in the year 3037 being inspired by some Woody Guthrie song just because his favorite band at the time loved a version of that song by their favorite band done 50 years before that and so on and so forth, and that it lives forever.”